Queen and Country
by thesilversun
Summary: Spooks: Code 9 fic. Charlie thinks about everything that has happened and where field office 19 is going after the events of the final episode of series one.


**Title** For Queen and Country  
><strong>Characters<strong> Charlie, Rob, Vik, Jez, and Kylie. Mentions Rachel, Hannah and Yates.  
><strong>Rating:<strong> G  
><strong>Spoilers<strong> All of Spooks: Code 9. Speculation on what might have happened after last episode.  
><strong>Summary<strong> Charlie thinks on what has happened.  
><strong>AN** This has been loitering around on a memory stick for far too long. It was going to be the start of a longer fic, but it works as a oneshot, and I'm not sure I'm going to be writing any more Spooks: Code 9 fic.

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><p>It's raining, a grey sullen drizzle that seems to envelop the whole city. It had started just before dawn, and now, well into the afternoon, it shows no signs of abating.<p>

'Perfect funeral weather' Rob had called it as they'd left the flat, and now, stood it the rain-washed cemetery, Charlie can't help but agree with him. The bleakness of the afternoon, and the mist shrouded moors in the distance seem to fit with bleak mood of his team.

It seems incredible to him that they are still his team. That after everything that has happened that both they and those higher up in MI-5 still believe that he should remain in such a position of authority.

Had Yates only appointed him after Hannah's death because she'd thought that she could manipulate him? That he would be too inexperience to see through what she had been doing? Or was it that she'd believed that he wouldn't investigate out of gratitude towards her for putting him in charge? Whatever her reasoning had been, she had, in the end misjudged him. He just wishes that he could have seen through her lies sooner; maybe if he had Rachel wouldn't have paid such a high price.

Kylie looks tiny beside Jez, and pale without her usual heavy dark make up. Charlie thinks she looks like a kid, although he knows that's she's the same age as him. They're all young though, too young for all the crap that's going on in their lives.

Rob stands with Vik, talking quietly, a hand on his arm. Charlie knows that Vik's still getting over what happened at Camp Windermere. He wonders if there is something going on between the two of them, something more than friendship.

He'd been confused by Rob at first, convinced that he'd taken a dislike to him, because of how Rachel had been attracted to him. But somehow that interpretation of Rob's attitude towards him never quite seemed to fit. And now with Rachel gone he's not sure he has the heart to analyse it any further.

The grave seems lonely, just a low mound of rain soaked dark earth. It says nothing of who Rachel was, how alive she'd been up until the moment that she had given that life which had been so full of promise to protect ten of thousands of people who would never know her name.

Charlie digs his hands into his pockets. He feels awkward dressed in a suit, like a kid playing dress up in his father's clothes. Although if he's honest he's felt like that since since taking command of field office nineteen.

So he's the one left in the rain, he's the one that has to deal with the single, minor dignitary that MI5 have sent as a token gesture for all that had happened. He's not sure if he's more annoyed that they dare show their face, than at the fact they can't be bother to recognise Rachel's sacrifice any better than this.

But then this is all that awaits all of them in the end. The certainty of death.

He looks at Kylie again, huddled now against Jez, and wonders if she'll be next, if one day soon the anti-radiation drugs that she's taking will stop working. But then it could be any one of them, a bullet, an explosion, or maybe just falling down the stairs to the flat one night; dead drunk turning in just a few steps into just plain dead.

Slowly they all drift away, until Charlie is the last one left. Until with one last sad glance back, Charlie follows the rest of his team away.

Field office nineteen had been a joke, his promotion had been a joke. But no more, people are counting on them, and he just has to hope that they'll be enough.

They all fit in one car now, and given the fuel rationing and the fact that Kylie still hasn't managed to get hers replaced maybe it is just as well.

Rob drives while they all sit silent with their own thoughts.

Kylie disappears into her room as stood as they get back, the door closing loudly in the flat.

It's hard to know what to do. The flat seems empty although with five people still living there it's still technically over crowded.

An hour later Kylie re-emerges,

"Rachel wouldn't have wanted us to sit around like this, like a

"She's right, we should give Rach a proper send off,

"I think I should stay here, there's…" Charlie tries to think of something that would get him out of going drinking with them.


End file.
